Saved
by frostdigi
Summary: Just a story for the background of my OC character Arekuruu, all naruto characters ans such belong to their rightful owners


Saved

I awake with a jolt, and quickly sit upright. As I survey my surroundings I quickly begin to realize that it is hard for me to move without producing a painful stinging sensation in my side, a glance downward reveals bloody bandages that cover wounds I have no memory of. A nurse swiftly came over towards me and gently put me back into lying down.

"Your wounds haven't healed yet, try not to move."

"But where am I?" I replied

"Don't you remember? You're in the hidden sand village hospital after some sand Shinobi on patrol saved you"

"Save me from what?"

"You were found unconscious in the desert with multiple wounds on you, what were you doing out there?"

"I was just….. Never mind it's not any of your business."

"Fine but, you need your rest so sleep, I'll check on you tomorrow"

"Alright, fine"

I decided it was best to go back to sleep, and try to remember what had happened in the morning. What was I doing before I became unconscious? I actually can't remember I was just outside the village going for a walk. I can remember everything else but not what happened last night. I wonder… I fell back into deep sleep thinking about my past.

Morning came sooner than I thought with bright sun beams shining through the window causing me to wince from the sudden change in light. 'Still hurts to move, but I think I can manage' I thought to myself, as I slowly got up on the bed. The room I saw was very basic, a nice stone brown colored the room, and the bright sun was shining through the open window. There wasn't much else to the room save for the table by my bed with a flower, and my sand headband on it. I quickly reunite with my head band and tie it tightly on. Afterwards I decide to limp over to the window to enjoy this beautiful day there was outside. All was well until something caught my eye, it was a kid with red hair and what appeared to be a giant gourd sitting next to him, then it hit me. He was Gaara, the Jinchuriki of the one tailed Shakaku. I never really hated the guy, I was almost just like him, an outcast with no family to be loved by, no friends, it was just me. I felt genuinely bad for the guy, sitting there all by himself. Then I squinted to get a better look and thought I had seen a tear drop fall from his face, but he was soon interrupted from his emotional trance by a few other kids walking by. They seemed not to notice who he was, until the very last moment. As he looked up at them they realized who he was and recoiled in horror.

"That's the Shakaku!"

"Run!"

"Get away or he might eat you!"

He got up with a start, looking really pissed off, and with the waving motion of his arm sand came to his aid and floated before him. I was astounded at this power, I had heard rumors but this was the real deal. Just then two other sand Shinobi ran up to him, one blonde haired girl carrying what appeared to be a giant fan, and the other with a black hood and something wrapped up in bandages on his back. They seemed to know Gaara pretty well as they grabbed him by the sash and said

"Just what the hell are you doing here? There's no need to go around trying to kill other sand Shinobi, you really should listen to your older brother!"

I was able to make out what Gaara had replied to him "it's too bad I don't think of you as my big brother at all. If you get in my way... I'll kill you. Just like anyone else who gets in my way."

They seemed a bit surprised at this statement but it seemed that they were used to this kind of behavior. They gave him a push to signal it was time to leave, but just before he started walking away he looked up towards the window where I was looking down upon them. I didn't know what to do, I smiled and gave a little wave hello but he returned a murderous glance and I pulled my head back in.

I sat back down on the bed thinking what I was going to do next, and then the nurse came into the room.

"Oh I see you're up, enjoying the view?"

"Yes it's a beautiful day outside. Too bad I got this" pointing to my wound "It would've been a perfect day to train. Anyways when can I leave this place?"

"Well if you're in such a hurry you can leave now, but try not to overdo anything until that thing heals alright?"

"Yeah, yeah thanks for patching me up, hopefully I won't have to be back here soon"

"Hopefully"

I waved goodbye to the kind nurse, as I opened the door and headed down the stairs. As I exited the hospital I felt the warm glow of the sun splash on my face, and the dry air filled my mouth with a stale taste. I decided to head back to my house for the time being as my wounds hadn't yet fully healed and I couldn't do any training like this without hurting myself again. I walked happily down the road heading back towards my house, and all was going great until I noticed one of the things that just rubbed me the wrong way. As I passed people in the street they all seemed to give me "that look" of disappointment, and I felt alienated once again in the stone cold glares of the villagers. Children were turned away from me as I might corrupt them by talking to them or something. This completely soured my mood, and I went to a fast jog to avoid more persecution, however this was a bad idea as my wound shocked me with pain but it was nothing compared to the pain inside my heart so I just kept on running. As I ran I yelled "I'll be one of the strongest Shinobi the Sand Village has ever seen! Just you wait, I'll show you all!" with tears starting to stream down my face. All I wanted in life was to be accepted by the villagers of the Sand, to belong, have purpose, to have someone to end my loneliness. I burst through the door, slamming it behind me as I didn't want to be seen. I lay on my bed for what had seemed like hours, the tears had long since stopped but I didn't want to move. I was used to this kind of treatment but no matter what it still got to me. After awhile my sadness just seemed to slowly dissipate as I returned to my normal cheery self. Just then I realized something though, today was the day squads were going to be picked! I was so excited; this could be my first real chance to get to have friends, and a mentoring sensei. I got cleaned up and put my outfit on it was my favorite one. An olive colored t-shirt with the Sunagakure sand village symbol on the back, as for pants I liked to keep it simple so olive pants as well. I made sure my headband was on tightly and I was off. I stuck to the back roads to avoid being seen, and I got to the training academy without running into anyone. I entered a bit early, which was nice due to there not being many people there. Sitting in my old seat, and staring at the wall made the wait for everyone else seem like centuries. I drifted off into to fantasies of what squad mate I would get, but was interrupted by the instructor assigning the teams.

"Alright, listen up everybody I don't want to have to repeat myself. As you all know shortly after graduating the academy, you are assigned to a three man squad plus a Jonin class instructor. This year things will be a bit different, there will only be squad sizes of two this year" the instructor proclaimed

There were faint murmurs at the change in squads all about the room; some were upset while others were excited. I didn't know how I felt about it, but I didn't have any time to think as the proctor began to speak again.

" I will now read off the squads, after I'm done calling all your names please meet with your squad mate and your sensei will be with you shortly. "

He began reading the list, each name on the list seemed not to be mine, and everyone was getting paired up when all of the sudden he said

"Arekuruu and Gaara"

I looked around the room, but Gaara was nowhere to be found, but on queue he stepped out from the shadows of the room and began walking towards me. The seat next to me was unused, and he sat there. I turned to him with a smile and said

"I guess we're partners now, huh? Nice to meet you my name's Arekuruu, you're Gaara right?

Slowly his head turned to face me; I noticed his strained eyes, and red forehead tattoo. He wasn't mad, although looked very menacing. He slowly said

"Yes I am Gaara, now shut up before I kill you"

My smile quickly faded from my face, as I stared at him and wondered what I had done in order to provoke him. Maybe he'd open up after I got to know him; I mean all that I really knew about him was his name. That shukaku stuff is only a rumor that I heard from the other students. He was avoided by everyone else in the class just like me, but it seemed that he wanted to stay distant from everyone as well. Always sitting in the shadows, or leaned up against a wall with piercing eyes that saw through your very body. And now here we were the two outcasts of the class, together in a squad, if this works out we could wither be best of friends or I could be dead. I took his threats seriously, as he said them in a low monotone voice, almost like he's practiced the line before. Just then a tall man walked up to us clad in Sand flak jacket with beige coloring, a sand turban on his head and beige pants with a intricate black design going down them.

"Greeting you two, I'm your team leader, Ritsu. I'll be training you and directing team missions from here on out, let us head over to the training field and see just what you two can do."

He took us to the training field not far from the academy; it was basically a flat plot of sand away from things so that jutsu could be used without worry.

"Now I want you two to try and take me down, and the only way you can do that is together. Now begin!"

I gave Gaara a look and said

"You ready to do this?"

A reply came back "Stay out of my way or I'll kill you" in the menacing low voice.

He proceeded to open up a relentless attack of sand on our sensei, Ritsu even didn't seem worried, and quickly took control of the situation with his speed. Every slash of sand thrown at him, he dodged with ease; he was just toying with Gaara right now. Gaara who had been expecting to go into this fight with applying little effort to win was taken aback by the strength of Sensei. It seemed that even though he had the powers to control the sand, it all meant nothing up against Ritsu's speed. Gaara began to look frustrated and tried increasingly more deadly techniques. Sensei noticed this however and in the blink of an eye was behind him with a kunai. His defensive sand didn't even have time to protect him from such a speedy attack. A flash of shock was seen to stain Gaara's face and for a moment he seemed stunned that someone had the ability to get past his sand. I saw this as an opportune time to try and save the day. I wove my hand signs perfectly on one of my best jutsus.

"Wind Style: Air Slash!"

I brought my hand down in a diagonal motion as a sharp blade of air appeared and flew directly at sensei. He didn't have time to react, not expecting me to do anything. As it hit, it turned out to be a sand clone, as it quickly turned into a pile of sand after being hit. "I saved you Gaara! Haha looks like you needed me after all!"

The look on his face was less than amused, a glare that I'll never forget one that I read as "Don't ever do that again if you value your life." Sensei soon reappeared, giving us a look of disproval.

"You guys may have had me, or even just saw through my clone, if you had worked together. The whole point of these two man squads is to be able to back your partner up and succeed with teamwork. There's much to learn, however you guys should train together some more and work on that team work. I will meet you guys here tomorrow around the same time."

And with that he was gone in a cloud of smoke off to do whatever a Sensei does. Gaara, who hadn't moved since his defenses had been penetrated, was standing still staring off into the distance contemplating who knows what. I thought maybe it was time for me to try and crack his outer shell once again, to see if there was a kinder fellow within. I cautiously approached him, trying not to prove any murderous actions against me. As I neared he turned his towards me with those unmoving eyes fixated upon me. I spoke

"Hey, you want to go get some ramen or something?" I said this with a grin on my face as a normally have there, the difference this time was that on the inside I was prepared for an outburst of violence from him. I took the threats seriously, and judging from the way he attacked Ritsu Sensei, he doesn't fool around.

" Why would I want to do something like that?"

"Because I'm your squad mate, and you're the closest thing I've ever had to a friend"

'_Friend' _ That word gave my tongue a weird taste as it had rolled out, I seldom had ever used the word and it felt invigorating to say. Just then I thought I saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes, but he quickly hid that emotion.

" I have no need of friends, they would only hinder me. I have one purpose in this world and that is to kill, as long as I kill I can feel alive. It is simply my way of saying that I exist, feel lucky you are my team mate for I will not kill unless provoked. As for anyone else I cannot say the same. As long as there are people in this world to kill, I will not cease to exist."

With that he turned away, and just walked toward a random direction, unclear of who he was going to meet but certain that he needed to kill them. I could almost taste the blood lust radiating off of him. I felt compelled to go after him; maybe I could stop this guy from killing anyone. I looked in the direction that I thought he went, but he just vanished. I went back into town to look for him but, he was nowhere to be seen. I didn't like it but it was getting late so I decided to give up. I went to the local ramen place by myself and had a bowl, paid for it and headed home to get some rest. I knew I needed to get rested in order to train with Ritsu Sensei tomorrow. I arrived back at my small house that used to belong to my parents, but now it was just me there. Inside there wasn't much to look at, there was only a table and some chairs that I used for eating, the refrigerator for storing the food I had. Then there was my bedroom, it had my bed, a night stand which held my alarm clock. That damn alarm clock, no matter what I did it would always go off at 10:00, Ive always thought about getting a new one, but its been there since my parents were alive. I couldn't get rid of it. The table next to that had several pictures of me and my parents on it, which was the only thing I had of them left. I changed into my pajamas and went to sleep thinking about this Gaara guy.

Suddenly my eyes opened up, I groggily looked at the clock, it read 2:30 A.M. on it, I had no Idea what had woke me up but I couldn't go back to sleep. I decided that I would go for a walk to pass sometime and clear my mind. The dark town seemed almost deserted save for a few roaming Shinobi guards. I silently walked through the darkened streets for quite some time, until I saw a figure that was approaching me. It didn't seem like any of the guards that I had passed earlier. No it was too short to be one of them. As we approached each other, I noticed the iconic gourd of sand on the fellows back and assumed it was Gaara. Upon closer inspection, what I saw horrified me; he was covered in dark red blood. His entire face was covered with it and most of his clothing, in his hair bits of flesh could be discerned in the moonlight.

"Uh… Gaara, are you Ok?"

"Yes! IN FACT I FEEL ALIVE"

His face showed insanity, he actually took pleasure in what he had done. We stood there with gazes locked with me too scared to make any sudden moves and him twitching with insanity. The blood was dripping off him onto the cold sand, staining it a reddish hue. I figured I had to say something to get out of this mess, but I didn't know what. Then without warning he started moving towards me, I dared not to flinch so I didn't provoke him. He brushed past me smearing blood on my right arm, not stopping to look back. He just wandered down the moonlit road, off to who knows where. I stood there for a good ten minutes after he was gone just to make sure it was clear. The blood on my arm had dried and started to crack, and I thought to my self

"No way am I sleeping again tonight. I still better get this cleaned up though, it's pretty disgusting."

I slowly walked home, taking the long way back so that I had time to think. I stared up at the moon and it gazed back at me with its pale white light. To think that I finally had a chance to make a friend in this world and he turns out to be some kind of killer sociopath. I guess that means I'll just have to try extra hard with him, I'm sure we'll become best friends. I reflected on what had transpired tonight, and thought of ways to deal with it on my way back. Sooner than I realized I was back at my house, having gotten nowhere with how to deal with the situation. I walked in and closed the door behind me, it was best to get this blood off of me quickly, due to the fact I was not fond of dry blood caking my arm. A hot shower helped to put my mind somewhat at ease. Afterwards, I just lay in my bed staring upwards at the ceiling, just zoning out. Not thinking about anything in particular but not falling asleep either. The sunrise pouring through the window and into my room brought me back to reality. I wasn't really tired at all, for not having slept most of the night. But then again, neither was I at the top of my game. Breakfast was in order, since my stomach wouldn't shut up about it. I couldn't find much to eat, just some cereal for now. I poured a bowl, and it tasted just like any other day, a plain almost tasteless brand of cereal, although bad tasting helped me get through the day without getting too hungry.

Shortly after I geared up into my clothes and put my headband back on, retrieving it from my night stand where I had always placed it, I tied it on tightly and was ready to go out for the next training session with Ritsu sensei and Gaara. But before I left my room I stopped to look at a picture of my parents holding me as a baby. I missed them, I missed them so much. That's why I have to train even harder to become the best ninja that the sand has ever seen. To be respected and acknowledged by all. That's my dream, and I'll never give up on it no matter what. With a surge of energy and determination flowing through me I headed off to the training grounds to learn from sensei and to try and make a new friend.

I approached the training ground with new found speed, to maybe impress sensei and be able to talk to Gaara if he was in the mood, or at least if he was sane again. To my dismay I had arrived earlier than either of them, so I had to wait there for both of them. However that meant I could work on my new jutsu that I had been developing. Another wind style, just like my air slash but it was a bit different. This jutsu allowed me to manipulate the air around me to be able to travel at faster speed reducing air friction. However my chakra control wasn't all that great, so I had never been able to do it correctly. But with the new sensei and Gaara I might finally be able to learn chakra better chakra control. I sat down in the sand and tried to focus the chakra around on the outer chakra points on my body. I was getting nowhere fast though, and I got rather frustrated with it. I got up, stretching from sitting down for so long. Afterwards I looked around, and neither of my team was to be found, however some irregular looking sand caught my eye and intrigued me. I looked harder at it and suddenly it seemed to move at a fast rate towards me. Flying past me, and right behind me, a figure came into view. It was Gaara traveling in the sand. Clad in his crimson trench coat, with his sand gourd held on his back by a single strap going across his torso, he seemed absolute. The sun shone brightly onto his red hair, and revealed a marking on his forehead to me. The kanji symbol for love, in a deep red color above his left eye. And speaking of eyes, his were surrounded by black circles that I could only guess what from. His light blue eyes seemed to betray him at times showing hints of sadness to me, but not for very long. His disposition was less than upbeat, but he seemed at ease, unlike the last time I encountered him in the street. I gave him a wave hello, and he seemed to notice my gesture with a slight nod but nothing more.

"Uhhh…. Howd you sleep last night Gaara?"

He slowly turned his head towards me with annoyance on his face but he entertained my question with an answer.

"I haven't slept in the longest time. I haven't been able to sleep for as long as I can remember."

"But why?"

"That is none of your concern"

Just then sensei walked up to the both of us, with a look on his face that could be best described as disappointment.

"I see you guys haven't embraced that wild teamwork concept yet have you?"

He sighed, looking towards the sky

"We'll just have to fix that then; I have just the plan for this occasion. You two must try to defeat me again, but this time won't be so easy. I won't give up until you two work together got it?"

I nodded in approval, and Gaara just stood there emotionless.

"Good, begin." Sensei said

With that he was gone. Gaara and I looked at each other both knowing what was needed of us, but him not wanting to cooperate.

"You know what we have to do Gaara whether you like it or not"

I said, trying to convince him into teamwork

"I don't need you, I don't need anyone"

With that definitive statement, he closed his eyes and tried to sense the position of Ritsu sensei. His eyes opened quickly as he shouted

"Sand shower barrage!"

Sand rose from the ground into balls hovering in mid-air around Gaara, and with a flick of his wrist they were sent off into the distance. There on the horizon, a small dot on the sandy landscape, was sensei. He stood there in the distance, motionless; he did not waver as the sand hurtled towards him. The sand approached at lightning speeds and just as soon as they were about to hit him, he was gone. Appearing next to Gaara he delivered a roundhouse kick aimed for his head, but the sand that protects him quickly rushed to his aid and blocked the blow. The sand didn't stop there though, it seemed to wrap itself around his leg, and then to his whole body. Everything except sensei's face was encased in sand. He rose a few feet off the ground, to which Gaara said

"SAND COFFIN"

And with that the sand imploded, crushing the man it had once contained. As fluids, and sand when flying everywhere a smirk appeared upon Gaara's face. Had he actually killed our sensei? Things did not just add up at all. I stood there puzzled for a few brief moments, and the as if to answer my many questions sensei fell from the sky landing a surprise leg drop blow directly to Gaara's head. Quickly following up with a barrage blows to his torso. The sand couldn't even react in time for it to save him. I ran over towards them to save Gaara. I could hear sensei shout, that if I wanted the same punishing blows that he had dealt Gaara I should help him otherwise I should leave. I didn't know what to do, I was afraid of what might happen to me but at the same time I wanted to save my squad mate. I was paralyzed, my whole world spinning. But an image came towards the front of my mind, it was my parents. I remembered how they had given their lives to protect me, something that they held dear to them. The flame of courage sparked within in me and control of my body came back to me. I waved my arm to cast my air slash at sensei, this time he dodged it with ease and sped behind me. I knew this was his plan all along, so I quickly turned around releasing a flurry of punches, with him blocking everyone. My mind was only focused on saving Gaara, which is where my strength came from. However I was quickly losing the advantage in this tide of battle, with sensei soon going on the offensive. At first I was able to block almost all of his attacks; however he quickly increased the speed of the attacks to which I could no longer block them. He was right, I am getting the same thing Gaara got, but I couldn't leave him by himself. Things started to go numb from the pain, was my journey to become a great ninja going to end here? In training? I closed my eyes, fearing the worst. But the next punch never came, I slowly opened my eyes and to my surprise sand had put itself in front of me to protect me from Ritsu sensei. On the other end of the sand was Gaara breathing heavily, but not having a scratch on him. He then took the initiative and formed a sand sphere around sensei. He looked up at me with his deep, unbreaking gaze.

"We win."

The sphere shrank into a small ball, compressing all that was inside into nothingness. To our surprise nothing happened, the ball collapsed and no splatter or anything. The quizzical look on my face soon vanished after hearing some clapping behind me. I turned around and it was none other than Ritsu sensei. He was clapping at our performance on teamwork, sure it wasn't anything near perfect but we actually worked together on something for once and that was an accomplishment all in its own.

"I'm surprised that you two worked together, so quickly. It wasn't much but it's a start. Now we will move on to the next thing you both must learn, Chakra control. For this exercise you must concentrate your chakra into your feet if you wish to be able to walk on walls. Now I want you two to run up the side of that building and go to the roof by only walking on the wall, got it?"

Well I guess we had to get to my weakness sooner or later, at least now we can get it out of the way. I was worried, but Gaara, he didn't look worried in the slightest. I couldn't tell if it was because of his usual lack of emotion or if he really was just that over-confident. All right here I go!" I shouted and with that I was off. I ran at the wall with full speed concentrating on moving my chakra to my feet. I got to the wall took two steps onto it, then quickly lost my balance and fell. I knew this was gonna be a big pain. Then Gaara tries the same thing running at the wall, except he gets up about halfway on his first try. I bite my lip to try and hold back the amazement on how well his chakra control is but it didn't help much. But I wasn't about to get beat by Gaara at this. So until dusk we tried and failed at reaching the top of the building, I had finally caught up with him in the long run. But still neither of us could make it up, and we both were tired; any tries beyond this point would inevitably end in failure. So after lying on the ground for a good ten minutes, I gave in to my hunger.

"Hey, you want to get something to eat, you must be starving"

He looked over at me, with those piercing blue eyes of his, studying me. He just gazed at me for the longest time, unblinking. Finally he said

"No, maybe some other time."

And with that he started walking off down the road. I stood there stunned, I had never heard him utter a complete sentence before, let alone a non-hostile one. Maybe he was finally warming up to me.

With much effort I managed to stand back up, and brush myself off. I looked over to where Gaara had been standing, and he was gone. No footsteps, no goodbye, no nothing. But then again it is Gaara I'm talking about. I decided it'd be best to eat when I got home, then sleep due to my worn out condition. I started to walk, immediately realizing that this would be a much harder task than I had previously realized. My fatigue had finally caught up to me, and my cuts were sore. I pushed it a little too far in order to try and beat Gaara. Well it can't be helped now, I thought limping towards my house. Through sheer willpower alone I managed to arrive back at my humble abode. After closing the door, I just went to my bed and fell onto it, falling asleep almost instantaneously.

My eyes creaked open sooner than anticipated, and as I groggily scanned the room, I realized that it was still dark outside. I wondered why I was awake, if it was still nighttime but as my eyes adjusted to being open I saw a figure in the moonlight. It was Gaara leaning up against my wall, staring at me. I didn't even think about how he got inside, just how long he had been standing there. Moments passed by while I was trapped in his gaze, then he pushed away from the wall and came over towards me.

"WHY?"

"Why what?" I responded fearfully

"Why did you come to my aid, in training the other day? You could've just watched me, and been fine, but instead you saved me at the cost of your own wellbeing. "

"Like it or not, we're squadmates. I could never expect you to be here for me unless I am here for you. Plus, I'd like you to think of me as a friend, seeing as we're in this together," I replied with a smile.

He seemed taken aback by this statement, as the reaction on his face turned into that of Pain. He held his head in agony, crying out in pain. I had no idea what the hell was going on. Then, he just turned into sand and evaporated into the wind. I sat upright, not having a clue in the world. I wasn't sure what to make of all this. I did know one thing for sure though: I didn't want to be stuck with Gaara anymore. All the other squad mates seemed to be getting along so well with their squad mates. They ate meals together, trained together, and genuinely took interest in each other's' well-being, and I was stuck with Gaara, a self-obsessed lunatic who couldn't give two shits about me. I was done. I could feel myself getting angrier by the minute. Why did I have to deal with Gaara? What did I ever do to anybody? It seemed like nothing ever went well in my life. Training was finally going to be my chance to make friends, to start again. The anger Gaara caused quickly escalated with thoughts of my parents. Why did they have to leave me here? I just couldn't take any more. I was tearing myself apart. I grabbed my headband and made my way to the training grounds.

Physical training always cleared my mind. I felt cool relief wash over me. The sense of discipline instilled in me when I was just a toddler took over, and my anger began to leave my body. I emptied my mind, and tried focusing chakra into my feet. Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me. I flipped around to discover Sensei walking up to me. His presence was always a calming one.

"Arekurru, it is late. What brings you to the training grounds at this hour?"  
"Nothing, Ristu Sensei." Showing weakness to Sensei was not something I ever wanted to do.

"Young one, in all of my years I have never trained this late at night unless something was bothering me. I assume you are troubled about your squadmate?" He stared off into the distance and waited for me to speak. I didn't know what to do. The fear of disappointing Sensei was overpowering my will to speak. After a few moments of silence, Sensei turned toward me again, and softly reassured, "You can tell me anything."

That was it. I broke down. I told him everything that had happened between Gaara and me, about the dead guards and the bloodlust I saw in his eyes, about the way he constantly looked down on me and how I felt so alone in this terrible universe. All the while Sensei didn't even flinch, like he knew this pain, and he understood. Closing his eyes, and looking up towards the sky, he cracked a smile.

"I knew your parents, when you were younger. They were some of the finest Shinobi that I had ever seen, and when they died I had known that in their hearts seeing you carry on to be the best you could ever be was what they wanted from you. As long as you lived on they would have done anything to protect you. Now all this anger towards Gaara isn't the way to go, hate will only cause more problems in the end. You must learn that deep down inside Gaara feels the pain you do inside. Trying to understand him and showing him the right path to walk on would've been what your parents had wanted."

Tears started welling up in my eyes, blurring my vision. He was right. Wiping the tears away with my arm I managed to say

"Thanks Ritsu sensei, I needed that."

"No problem, now go home and get some rest. You need it"

With my mind at ease, I felt I could sleep once again. So I returned home to get the rest that I so desperately needed.

The darkness slowly faded away from my eyes, revealing to me the surrounding area. But it wasn't my room, it was the cool and moonlit desert. I look around, and there is not a soul in sight. Staring at the ground I wandered away into the endless desert. I came to a swift stop, and fell to my knees. My legs couldn't move any longer, and as a knelt there I pulled something out. It was a picture of me and my parents when I was younger; it soon became wet from tears rolling out from my eyes. My mouth moved but no sound came out…..

As I wake up, I throw my covers back and my legs over the side of the bed. Rubbing my eyes, I wondered what that dream was about. Maybe it meant something deep inside; it bothered me due to it being so out of place. I shrugged it off for now, and decided to get some breakfast. I decided to make some chocolate chip waffles today, because I was tired of cereal for the moment and sensei gave us the day off to rest. As always I burned them slightly, I was never a great cook. But these were no ordinary waffles, as they reminded me of my parents. So no matter how they were cooked, they tasted like happy memories to me, and I savored every bite of it. After wards I figured I try and work on my Air style jutsu, not the one that required chakra control but an air style shuriken. I decided to go outside of the village for this training exercise for a change of scenery. I took my time getting there, as I was in no rush to get there, and for some reason people didn't give me those looks of disapproval today. Today was a good day so far, and that made me happier than usual. I hadn't really picked any spot in particular, but I went near some rocks for targets. Finding a suitable spot I took out a few shuriken and laid them on the ground. I left one in my hand, to try and figure out how to do this jutsu. It played out really well in my head, and now I was just drawing a big blank. I just kind of stood there concentrating on the shuriken, seeing if I could move my chakra into it. I was broken from this when I felt a tap on my shoulder; I turned around and saw a guy a bit older than me. He had purple markings on his face, and a black hood with cat ears. I didn't recognize him until I saw the bandaged object on his back. He was the guy talking to Gaara while I was in the hospital.

"Hey there kid. I hear you're paired with my little brother in a squad. Is that so?"

"Yeah, I am. But I had no idea he had any family."

"Not many people do, I'm Kankuro his older brother."

"Nice to meet you then Kankuro, I'm Arekuruu. You sure are a lot friendlier than your brother"

"Gaaras actually the reason I came to talk to you. You need to be careful around him, he could kill you if you're not careful. He's been acting weird the last day or so, for no inherent reason. If he goes mad, then the Shakaku will inevitably show itself."

"And what exactly does that mean?"

"That means, if you piss him off the one tailed sand spirit that is sealed inside of him will take over, and if that happens there might not be any stopping him."

"Is that why Gaara is like he is?"

"Yes, and No. You see our mother died shortly after his childbirth and, our father is the one who put the sand spirit into him. So he didn't have the best childhood."

"That's terrible, no one should have to endure a pain like that."

I paused for a moment, then said "Why are you telling me all this?"

"To warn you about the threat he poses to you and everyone else."

He started walking away, but only got a couple of feet and turned around to face me again

" Maybe, you could be the one to change him, your Sensei seems to believe in you. I couldn't do it and I'm his brother."

A small hint of tears welling up in his eyes could be seen ad then he managed to say

"Just be careful, you might be the one who can save him….."

He trailed off in his sentence, turning back away slowly. He walked onwards back to the village.


End file.
